Ex-Manatee High baseball coach's camps said to break rules

Friday

Nov 15, 2013 at 6:59 PMNov 15, 2013 at 7:11 PM

Players who paid Dwayne Strong a fee were more likely to compete in tournaments, sources say.

By CHRIS ANDERSON

Former Manatee High baseball coach Dwayne Strong violated at least four state rules while conducting summer camps, placing the program in jeopardy of possible fines and sanctions, according to multiple sources close to the program.

The school could face a minimum fine of $10,000 if the Florida High School Athletic Association determines infractions occurred. The school district is conducting an investigation into possible improprieties, which it will forward to the state's governing body of high school athletics upon completion.

Four sources familiar with the program told of a system Strong used in which it was implied that players had to pay a camp fee in order to play in summer tournaments.

That is, if a player paid a $320 camp fee, he was much more likely to play on Strong's Manatee Baseball Club team in summer tournaments over someone who did not pay.

“It was like a stranglehold on you,” the parent of one player said. “They forced you to go to the camp and pay the camp fee as a prerequisite for playing in tournaments.”

Three parents of players and a former coach requested their names not be used for fear of retribution for themselves or their sons.

“This was a private business for Dwayne Strong, period,” said the parent of another player. “If people can't see he profited through Manatee they're na´ve. It's all there in black and white.”

The FHSAA has rules in place to prevent coaches from using summer camps as anything other than instructional vehicles.

Multiple sources said Strong violated the rules by having his own nonprofit corporation run the camps, collecting fees personally and allowing high school players to attend.

State rules allow only players in seventh grade or below to attend such camps so high school coaches cannot evaluate or recruit players to their teams or instruct potential players for the coming season.

“He violated all those things, no doubt about it,” one parent said.

Strong, who resigned from Manatee on Nov. 1, could not be reached for comment.

The Herald-Tribune has reported that Strong coached last season without proper state certification and may have paid a former player to write two papers in an effort to obtain that certification.

Manatee High principal Don Sauer and Manatee High athletic director Joe Kinnan did not respond to requests for comment.

Strong is the second Manatee High coach to come under scrutiny in a year.

Former Manatee High assistant football coach Rod Frazier has been charged with seven counts of battery against female students and employees and is awaiting a trial date.

Possible sanctions

The Manatee County school district is conducting an investigation into Strong and has yet to release its findings.

The FHSAA is awaiting results from the district's investigation and will use that to determine if infractions have occurred and penalties are warranted.

The Bradenton Police Department conducted a brief investigation into alleged financial mishandlings by Strong, but is no longer investigating because no victim came forward.

On Oct. 4, Manatee High principal Sauer sent an email to the FHSAA stating the baseball program may have committed a “possible infraction” of FHSAA bylaws.

Each violation carries a minimum fine of $2,500.

The program could also see a reduction of home games as well as exclusion from the playoffs. Manatee was a state semifinalist in 2011.

Sauer's Oct. 4 email to the FHSAA advised that “the school district has opened an internal investigation of our program, our internal accounting of athletic funds as they relate to our baseball program and a possible conflict of interest between our head coach and a business he owns, Sandlot@5tools.”

Sandlot@5tools is Strong's business in downtown Bradenton, which was used by Manatee baseball players to train.

FHSAA executive director Roger Dearing said mixing funds between businesses and school programs is frowned upon.

“We don't like to see a co-mingling of funds between a private enterprise and a school athletic program,” Dearing said. “It can easily go awry.”

Peggy Jones, associate director for administrative services at the FHSAA, responded to Sauer in an email on Oct 7.

“We will not sanction the program/school until we hear from you regarding a final report on the internal investigation,” she wrote.

Jones also requested the names of all students involved; asked if participation was required for students to make the team; requested the total booster amount paid for each athlete; and wanted to know if the internal account for baseball was at Manatee.

'A real shame'

For the last several years, Strong conducted summer camps at G.T. Bray Park that lasted six weeks. Usually about 40-45 youths attended, parents say, at a cost of $320 per player.

According to Policy 24.1.1.1 of the FHSAA bylaws, a coach can conduct a summer camp if it is run by a nonprofit, but that nonprofit cannot be owned by the coach.

Strong created a nonprofit in 2005, with the mother of a former star pitcher at Manatee High, called Dream Big, Do it Big Inc.

In September 2012 he added the name “Manatee Baseball Club” to his nonprofit, state records show.

Two parents said they made checks out to “Manatee Baseball Club” for camps.

FHSAA policy states that a coach must act in an instructional capacity only.

Two parents and a former coach said Strong performed administrative tasks, such as collecting money for his camps and booking tournaments.

“There was never a third party who took the money,” one parent said. “It was always Dwayne himself. He was putting $320 from each kid into his pocket.

“And his camp was a joke. There was no coaching. He sat in a chair and the kids threw the ball around.”

FHSAA policy also states that all camp participants must be at least two grades lower than the lowest grade of the coach's school.

Since Manatee is a 9-12 school, Strong's campers were required to be in seventh grade or lower.

One parent said the camps consisted of around 40-45 players and “98 percent” were eighth- and ninth-graders. Some were older.

“That camp was for kids going into high school so he could get a good look at them,” one parent said.

“The camps were made up of high-schoolers. If he didn't have those kids he wouldn't have had a camp,” another parent said.

FHSAA rules state that Strong was not allowed to wear anything that says Manatee on it, but he routinely did, according to the parents and former coach.

That could be another violation.

“It's a real shame,” one parent said. “But I don't think what he's done is right.”

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